Between Time and Tide
by Destiny's Creator
Summary: Shipwrecked alone would have been enough of a problem for anyone, but poor Virgil and Ritchie just never have it easy. It’s Static and Gear stranded on a deserted island together! What more could you possibly ask for?
1. Default Chapter

Title:  "Between Time and Tide"

Author:  Destiny's Creator, coppersorceress4588@yahoo.com

Genre:  Action/Adventure with dabs of Romance but I'm not overdoing this people!  Let's go, get those minds out of the gutter; for now anyways… 

Warnings:  This will be a slash V/R!  If you don't like, then please don't read.  Slight language, but they're teenagers!  I'm just trying to make this as realistic as I can.

Rating: PG this chapter but will probably increase to PG13 in the future. 

Archives:  FF.net and Static Slash (Yahoo group), anyone else is welcome but ask first!

Disclaimer:  Do not own Static Shock!  If I did I'd change so many things… like why do they always disparage Gear?  That annoys me; he's my favorite character and just as good as the rest… if not better!  He should get just as much of the spotlight, if not more! 

Summary:  Shipwrecked alone would have been enough of a problem for anyone, but poor Virgil and Ritchie just never have it easy.  They have to deal not only with finding the essentials in a wilderness that is definitely _not _Dakota, but also having no powers and consequently no way home… not to mention they have to survive each other!  Oh, and a forgotten curse doesn't seem to want to help matters much either…  

It's Static and Gear stranded on a deserted island together!  What more could you possibly ask for?  Oh, those wondrous possibilities keep growing…

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."  –Louisa May Alcott

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 1:

It was dark and stormy that night.  

The ocean was fierce, its currents pounding too harshly against the little cruiser for it to hold.  Within minutes, the helm broke beyond repair.  Screams of many rang through the air.  They could no longer steer and with no one having control over the boat, a rising shock of pandemonium swept onboard with the blaring winds.  The sides cracked open, water quickly flooding the deck beyond bailing; the only option left to everyone was… 

"Abandon ship!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"God I think I'm gonna barf," Ritchie groaned from where he slumped over the railing, looking dangerously green as he watched the people run back and forth in a blind panic… while getting absolutely no place.  "V, can't you do anything about this man?"

"Like what?  I can't control the weather!"  Virgil was also disgruntled and looking more than a little pale in the brief flashes of lightning.  They were the only two not completely freaked about the whole sinking thing, but face it, they've gone through a lot worse.

Of course, nobody actually knew that.

"Just hold the boat together or something, I don't know!" 

"I can't, it's too wet!  I'd risk electrocuting everybody!"

He could just hear Ritchie groaning from that news but he knew Virgil was right.  There was no way he could transform into Static here. 

"Remind me to work on that when we get home."

"What about you?  Can't you do something?"  Virgil yelled back over the growing din, knowing full well that Backpack was waterproof. 

"I sent an emergency message to the coast guard, doesn't that count as something?"

Virgil just shook his head remorsefully.  "Just our luck," he whispered, mostly to himself.

They both turned to the sound of sloping footsteps approaching.  When Virgil's sister reached the two, panting hard from the effort, she slapped her brother one for good measure… making her come all the way over here indeed!  She had to claw and elbow at least a dozen frightened tourists just to reach them…

Needless to say, Sharon was furious.  She was soaking wet, frozen to the bone and definitely not in the best of moods…

"Hell?  What was that for?"  Virgil rubbed at his abused cheek.

"Let's go!  Dad wants us up there!"  She shouted, pointing up the ship to where Mr. Hawkins stood waving frantically and motioning to a nearby lifeboat.  He was hollering out something too but the roar of passing thunder drowned him out completely.

The message was clear though.  

"Now!"

"But we need to get our stuff…"  Ritchie started to protest, before the ship gave another gigantic lurch to the side, much to his dismay…  

"Move it!"  She snapped, giving both her brother and Ritchie a none-too-gentle shove towards the bow, before wrapping her arms tightly about her own person, shivering.  

It was never that easy.

They slipped and slid up the increasingly steep deck, holding onto the railings and each other for support.  Many times found them tripping and falling over their own feet.  Eventually though, slowly but surely, they made progress.

"Didn't the weather forecast say clear all this week?"

"Shut it you two!"

Suddenly, a wave larger than the rest crashed dangerously close to the vessel causing an unexpected shove backwards.  Both Ritchie and Sharon were able to grab hold of railings but Virgil, in the middle, was not so fortunate. 

Arms flailing, he nearly tumbled back into the sea if it wasn't for Ritchie's quick reactions.  His hand snapped out of nowhere and caught his in the last second. 

"Come on!"  He gritted his teeth at the weight but didn't let go, hauling his best friend back to safety.  After a few more skids, Virgil found his footing and leaned against Ritchie's shoulder for a moment while regaining his breath.

"Thanks."

Ritchie just smiled tiredly and shrugged, "Heh, what can I say?  Reflex."

"Keep going!"  Sharon called; there were a few more nerves in her voice now.  She was way ahead of them in reaching her father, and when she got there, they both threw down a rope and hung on for dear life.

"Grab this quick!"  A particularly nasty moan from the ship sprang the pair into action.  It was lucky that they were young superheroes, pulling yourself up a cord is hard work in a life or death matter, which this was soon becoming.

They scrambled up as fast they could.

"I always did say I was better at shimmying than you," Ritchie teased softly to Virgil as they reached the top, always keeping his cool.

Robert Hawkins took hold of his son and swung him into the lifeboat where Sharon awaited with life vests.  Next in went Ritchie and then he himself climbed in.  He made swift work of the knots holding them and carefully lowered the craft into the water.  Once they were clear of immediate danger, he turned to the others.

"Put those on and make sure they're secure!"  And with his command, one by one the life vests went on until they realized… 

"Oh shit, we're one short!"  Everyone froze in terror and even Mr. Hawkins forgot to rebuke Virgil's language.  Nobody ever checks those things like they're supposed to and now Ritchie was the only one left.

They were still rocking violently, tossed back and forth like a ping-pong ball.  Mr. Hawkins struggled to free himself of his own life preserver, despite shouts of "Dad no!" and "It's alright Mr. H, really!"  However, just when he finished coaxing the buckles to come undone the worst possible thing happened.

A swell crashed down upon them and even holding on as tightly as he could, Ritchie was flung out with a yell that no one heard.

Spluttering, Virgil looked around frantically.  

"Is everyone alright?  Ritchie?  Dad where's Ritchie?"

"He must have been thrown over!"  

"Man overboard!"

"RITCHIE!"  Virgil bellowed anxiously…  "Ritchie where are you?"

He held his breath, eyes anxiously scanning the water's surface for any sign of… 

There!

It was Ritchie holding onto some piece of broken off wood, but still floating!  Gasping and coughing, his eyes widened as the force of the unrelenting current pulled him back under.

"RITCHIE!"  Without thought or reason, Virgil Hawkins jumped in after his friend before anyone could make a grab to stop him.  Sensibly, he shouldn't have gone, yet somehow sense didn't matter in that single moment.

This was his friend's life.

He swam recklessly in the direction he thought he last saw Ritchie go down, hands searched vigorously and only praying he would find him in time.  He ignored all calls of his father and sister to return.  He had to find him here; he just had to!

He swallowed even more seawater but didn't give up, no matter how rough.  Then, for one miraculous instant, it seemed that every sound in the world had gone silent.  He could no longer hear the rumble of thunder or the crashing of the ocean; he heard no one's voice.  Reality stopped and then behind him…

The sound of someone surfacing, huffing, and wheezing caught his attention.  He turned just in time to see blond hair and a lone hand go under again.

Taking a deep breath, he dived for all he was worth.  

It was too dark, he could barely see, but with another push down, he felt skin brush against skin.  Grasping tightly, he tried to pull him to the surface but found him too heavy to do so.  

Alarmed, he swam down further to his friend's level and felt around him.  Ritchie was still wearing Backpack!  Knowing his friend would most likely murder him later; he separated the shoulder straps from Ritchie and let them fall to the ocean floor, before giving one more giant heave upward towards the surface.  

Emerging together, he never felt so relieved in his life—well minus a few—but was Ritchie still breathing?  He'd been underneath for so long…

"Ritchie!  Ritchie come on man, you gotta wake up!"  He fearfully spun his friend around as best as he could to see his face.  He nudged him, gently first then harder, trying to get some sort—any sort—of reaction.  Finally, brown eyes opened groggily, but couldn't focus due to the loss of glasses when he was dumped over. 

"V?  That you?"  His voice, cracking with strain, sounded harsh.  He was already exhausted, and the water was none too warm either...  

"It's okay man…  I'm here, I've got you."  Virgil maneuvered Ritchie's arms to a better hold, before looking about frantically.  "Dad!  Sharon!" he called out desperately, but to no avail, he couldn't see their boat anywhere in the surrounding rapids.  Water raging in surges continued to bombard them as he yelled holding to Ritchie tight.  

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Neither knew how long they'd been there, maybe hours, or how far they'd drifted, maybe miles, but both felt weaker than they'd ever been.  The storm had somewhat died down at least, they were no longer fighting to remain afloat, but as tired as Ritchie was, he knew Virgil couldn't hold on to him forever.

"V," he started, then coughed some and tried again, "V-man, you gotta let go."

Virgil looked at his friend horrified, "What?  Are you crazy?  If I do, you'll die!"

Ritchie just smiled at him feebly, acceptingly, "Everyone does eventually.  You gotta let go V.  You gotta find your family.  If you don't… you'll die here too." 

Virgil shook his head, negatively and _hard_.  "Nu-uh, no way I'm letting that happen bro!  _Never,_ you got that?  It's sink or swim with us—literally now—and either way, no one's leaving anyone!  Listen, if I can just take out this arm like so and you tuck that one in—oh just do it already!—then we can just hold on to each other and get to _share_ the life vest.  It'll hold!  Brilliant huh?"  

"And they say I'm the smart one, just be thankful it's not one of those cheep ones!  And V?"  

"Yeah?"

"Just… stay with me, 'kay?"

"Deal." 

So there they remained, calling out once in awhile but mostly they kept to holding firm, drawing strength from one another as they drifted to who-knows-where. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Author's Note:  I know where!  I know where!  Okay now the hard part, continuing the story to the point where you—the readers—actually find out.  First chapters are always the easiest for me but continuing after that usually finds me sidetracked somehow... happens quite often unfortunately.  So please review, put me on guilt trips if you have to, and help me finish this story!  I have so many good ideas; I just need to get them down on paper…

Also, I know I have yet to post the promised sequel of "A Simple Conversation," but it's nearly finished!  Those are simply my one-shots though, this I intend to be fully chaptered… *faints*

Thanks to all my reviews from that as well!  I was like WOW!  People actually liked that, best positive feedback ever!  Gosh, everyone here is so nice that I just had to get this out quick.  So this is dedicated to everyone who reviewed and encouraged me on my first ever "Static Shock" fic!


	2. Chapter 2

"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." -Mark Twain

Chapter 2:

The sun's rays beat down hard against the sparkling, white sand, attempting to burn that which mockingly, day after day, remained unchanged. The waves crashed dangerously close with the incoming tide, each one foaming angrily before rushing off. Their intent on flooding the beach but only to fail, being pulled back at that very last moment… however, not before managing to snag something else.

Virgil woke to the water's slick touch drizzling down his sides; it didn't make that much of a difference, he was already soaked through. Blearily he coughed a few times before raising his head, his first dazed thought that it was better coming around to that then a nasty pinch from a crab. Shaking himself a few times, he scrambled further up the beach on all fours, slowly realizing how lame that sounded, even in his head.

What was he doing here? _Where_ was here? Why wasn't he in his nice warm bed at home? There weren't any beaches in Dakota the last time he checked… and wasn't there something else he was forgetting? Well, he was kind of slow to remember a lot of things right now, but there was something important, he was almost sure of it…

Eyes shot wide open as everything rushed back, leaving him dizzy.

Ritchie…

"Rich…" he could barely get out the first two syllables before being thrown into a ragged coughing fit. He pushed himself up, fumbling to his feet… only to trip and fall over a step later.

"Ritchie!" He called out, forcing himself to focus, blurry vision doubling before settling into a… palm tree.

Okay, that didn't help.

He scanned the surrounding shoreline, fighting off immediate panic when he didn't spot his friend anywhere. Numbly, he tried standing up again and started awkwardly southward, blinking against the bright light…

Steadily he gained speed breaking into a light, albeit clumsy jog that zigzagged at odd angles. Frantically he called out, looking left and right, up and down… it all seemed the same to him.

What if he was badly injured?

What if he didn't even _make it?_

No, both of those were impossibilities… Ritchie _was _all right…

After all, he promised…

Suddenly he glimpsed what he hadn't been particularly fond of before while he was drowning in it but was just now his favorite color…

Blue…

Not ocean blue…

Bright electric blue.

As in that annoying sweater Ritchie insisted on wearing it to death, and right now Virgil was _so glad _he did…

Weariness temporarily brushed aside, he ran full force.

"RITCHIE!" Virgil bellowed, waving feverishly; he must have made quite the sight in his hysterics…

He tripped and skid in the sand, slipped and slid; practically falling over himself in his redefining of haste.

Finally, he tumbled and dropped next to his best friend, who in spite of the terrific performance given, hadn't moved an inch…

He froze.

"Ritchie?" He bent over him… "Oh, come on man… this… this _isn't _funny!"

Okay, first things first… was he breathing? Virgil placed a shaky hand over his friend's mouth. His breath was either too shallow to feel, or wasn't there at all. Not good. Swallowing panic, he brought an ear to his sidekick's chest. Listening, and listening…ever so carefully for…

…That! A heartbeat!

But it was so faint…

"Rich! Wake up dammit!"

He shook him, hard, but Ritchie's eyes stayed close…

All right, he learned this sometime ago in health class… if only he'd paid attention instead of folding paper airplanes! Let's see now… if his heart was still pumping that meant doing all out CPR could probably kill him… but he wasn't breathing regularly either and that indicates that he should…

…perform the Breath of Life until he could spew up the seawater and safely breath on his own.

Oh shit.

Virgil looked around helplessly for a moment more, as if hoping someone—preferably a trained professional—would miraculously step in and take the duty from him.

No such luck.

He gulped, suddenly uncharacteristically nervous. He licked at his parched lips, frozen, as he tried to remember the technique he'd used on the doll… but that had been a plastic figurine, not a person! And this was _Ritchie_ he was about to do mouth to mouth on…

Oh God.

Virgil finally just groaned and got down on his knees with a thump besides the motionless body of his friend. Damn, he just knew he was going to regret this… but he couldn't very well do _nothing_ now could he?

Nope, just like jumping into the water after him, a deep breathe then take the plunge…

He lifted his Ritchie's head, cautiously opening his mouth with thumb and forefinger. Cracked brown lips finally met salt-water wrinkled pink ones as the first wave of air was shared between them. Virgil's cheeks puffed up as he took in and blew out another then another lungful, forcing his friend's chest to expand and accept the offering of life-affirming sustenance.

Once…

Twice…

Thrice…

Was it working?

_Why wasn't it working!_

For several minutes he fought against himself to keep going, the suspense instinctively made him want to hold his breath.

Finally, he felt his friend's body convulse beneath him and he took his mouth away just in time. Ritchie rolled to his side and heaved.

When it felt like the entire Atlantic, and all its various sea creatures included, had been drained from his system, Ritchie tried to look up.

After many squinting attempts at this and the conclusion that, even if he did get his eyes open wide enough to take in his surroundings without his eye-wear he couldn't be able to make out the details anyways, he gave up and simply turned to groping instead.

"V…Virgil?" he rasped out desperately.

"Right here man," Virgil soothed, speech returned to him after briefly being robbed in relief. Grabbing Ritchie's seeking hands in his own, he squeezed gently, very much aware that his friend's body was as covered in sunburn as his own. More so, because of his lighter complexion, Ritchie looked red as a lobster.

"Thank God," Ritchie relaxed a fraction at his voice, sending a silent prayer up to a deity he didn't really believe in and hadn't since he'd gotten his brainpower. Still, if it got them home safely, he'd promise to attend Catholic Mass. "So… I'm guessing there's little to no chance my glasses survived, right?"

"Probably not, though there's plenty of sand around to try and melt you another pair."

Ritchie blinked again; if he could have he would have glared at the bad joke. His tear ducts were working overtime to clear the sand specks from his eyes. And though they still stung, he stubbornly refrained from using his sand-covered arms to wipe away the rest, knowing it would only worsen the situation.

"And, just for clarification sake, we _were_ ship-wrecked right?"

"Right."

"Lemme guess, no signs of civilization whatsoever?"

"Nope. Nada."

"Yeah… that would have been too easy." Ritchie thought it over. "Okay, to pinpoint where we are… we started out by sailing in the Caribbean right?"

"Yep."

"There are hundreds of islands in the Caribbean." Ritchie deadpanned.

Virgil nodded again unhelpfully, "Yep."

"However, thanks to technological advancement and recent GPS placements, there's no isles left uncharted."

"Really?" This was the first good news Virgil had heard all day. It gave him a sinking feeling. For, as Ritchie was fond of saying often, nothing was ever that simple.

"There _are,_ however, uninhabited islands… vacant for assorted reasons though. Like some are too small, how big does this one look?"

Virgil checked left and right, he'd felt winded running over to where Ritchie was but that could have easily just been adrenaline. He saw where his footprints, the only ones marring the sand, had trekked and finally where he had started. The beach went on from there though, quite a ways, and then took a bend. Who knew how far it went.

"I'd say a mile or two from what I can see... but then again it curves, _and_ I'm not very good at judging distances."

"Okay, well, the next step of worry then is… active volcanoes! _Please_ tell me you don't see any smoking hills!"

Virgil's eyes widened, he hadn't even thought of that! His head whipped around to directly behind him. There were indeed some rising slopes… but no smoke.

Could that just mean they were inactive? And for how long would they so remain?

"Nothing I can see," he fought for calm in his voice, forcing the tremor aside. It was time for that superhero bravado to be good for something. "We'll have to check that out more closely though, as soon as we hike up there and you tell me what to look for."

"Yeah, I'm not going to be of much help in the sight department for awhile…" Ritchie huffed.

"Hey man, don't worry about it… Just as long as this doesn't turn into that plot from that stupid book we read in 6th grade. What was it called, Island of the Blue Dolphins or something? Was that it?"

"Nah, that was the one with the girl and the…dolphins. I think. You're thinking of the one where the little kid goes blind and ends up on the island with that strange man… The Cay. Uck, I hated both of them."

"Yeah, school reading sucks… especially when they make you listen to books on tape. Now that's the worst! Or do you remember Lord of the Flies when all the English kids go insane? Yeah, let's not do that…"

"You sure, cause if one of us just remembered to snatch up a volleyball we could've done Tom Hank's 'Castaway'."

"Ha ha, very funny Rich… are you sure it was Tom Hanks? I thought it was someone else…"

"V, focus! You know, the whole trapped-on-a-deserted-island deal?"

"Oh, huh, sorry…"

Ritchie made to look around once more but then gave up, scrunching his eyes shut and just reaching out for Virgil. "Come on, V-man, I don't think we need anymore tanning today… Not like you needed it in the first place!"

"Pfft, that was lame Rich…" Virgil trailed off, giving his friend a hand up and then swinging Ritchie's arm over his shoulders, steadying him against his side as he had done countless times before.

"Yeah, I know, what can I say? The sun's getting to me…"

Virgil felt dizzy too, not to mention sick to his stomach, but he wouldn't complain. Ritchie was undoubtedly the one between the two more susceptible to sun poisoning. Not just because of skin pigmentation but because he barely got out during the day at all. At night they patrolled together, in the morning it was off to school, and then right after that Rich ran off to the gas station to work on his inventions. It was why Ritchie was still shockingly ghost white even though his hero outfit allowed for more skin to show. Well, it was a combination of that and an Irish heritage.

Somehow, they stumbled in the direction of shade.

Ritchie took notice of V's wincing. Even if he couldn't witness his best friend biting his lip, he could feel the tightening of Virgil's muscles across his back as he fought off the pain. Woozily, he tried to take more of the weight but Virgil wouldn't allow it. Once there, they both collapsed in a heap of tangled limbs. With Ritchie's blurry vision it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended, he found this amusing but kept it to himself. Instead, he made to sit up and started running concerned fingers over Virgil's body, unbeknownst mimicking his friend's earlier fretful actions over him.

"I'm all right Rich, really! Probably just sprained an ankle or something… and got a few little scrapes and bruises from the rocks…Ouch that _hurts_! Be careful will ya?"

Finally the frantic movements started slowing down, all the muscles and ligaments had been checked and no bones were found to be broken. Ritchie still didn't remove his hands all the way though, it was fast becoming _very_ disconcerting, not being able to see clearly.

"I'm fine," Virgil's voice was gentle as he detected the trembling in his partner's hands. "What about you?"

"If you mean besides being blind as a bat, then yeah I'm fine. The salt water in my eyes isn't helping much either. But I'm serious V; my vision's no good without my glasses!"

"You never have them when you're wearing your visor as Gear…" Virgil began dubiously, then stopped.

"I corrected that _through_ the visor! That green tint, you know… not only does it make a great screen for reading data and stopping any sort of glare, so I can't be blinded in battle, but it magnifies my vision by various degrees. I'm _better_ than 20/20 most times! I can even zoom in close on any object any distance by variables of ten. Like a portable microscope, or telescope, depending on what I want… and I told you this all ready!"

"Yeah…well…" Virgil mumbled nervously; how was he supposed to let Ritchie know he didn't tune in to _all_ his equipment updates?

"Speaking of my visor, where's Backpack?"

Virgil's insides froze and turned to putty simultaneously.

"I know I had him on when we jumped ship…"

Ritchie gave three sharp whistles in quick succession, "Backpack! Here boy!" He turned to Virgil to explain, "He only replies to my voice command while off so don't worry about calling him."

"Rich… oh God, how do I say this? It's gone. Backpack's gone. I had to let it go."

Even unfocused, Ritchie's eyes gave off a very good impression of his hurt.

"You… what? We could've used him to find fresh water! To build a shelter! To fucking be _found_! How's that going to work without his tracking system? His chip? How are we gonna spot planes or ships? How are _they_ going to spot _us_? Did you even think about that!"

"No! I didn't! All I knew was that it was too heavy and that it was bringing you down! That was enough for me… I wasn't going to loose you because of that machine, all right!"

Suddenly, Ritchie went quiet. Both of them were breathing hard and both tried to get their bearings. Virgil could visibly tell Ritchie was struggling with this. He always used pronouns with Backpack and Virgil knew it was much more than 'a machine' to Ritchie.

"Listen, bro, I am sorry… I promise I'll help you rebuild when we get back. Bigger, stronger, and better than ever. But I wasn't going to loose you. I'm not…"

Rich sucked in a shaky breath. "I know I… would've done the same for you, if it had been reversed. It's just…"

"It… _he_ meant something to you." Ritchie was mourning; Virgil realized that now was not the time to argue over whether that piece of AI deserved subjective forms of speech. "He was one of your first inventions as a bang baby."

"It's fine, we've got to worry about more important things right now… food, water, shelter, getting home. I was actually wondering more along the lines of why I didn't think of it when I first woke up…"

"Well, judging from this large lump you got on the back of your skull." Virgil touched his fingers gently to where some of Ritchie's blond hair was stained red, watching his friend flinch. "I wouldn't blame your self too much."

"But that's not it either, not entirely anyways. I haven't had one brain blast since…" He broke off, turning to stare blankly out into the ocean.

"Ritchie…?" Virgil nudged, something within him plummeting fast at his reactions.

"Virgil, try to use your powers."

Virgil frowned, partly at the use of his full name and partly at the request. He tried to summon a charge and the frown deepened when nothing came out.

"Well… that's no biggie. I mean, I was drenched! And still a little damp… I need some time to re-"

"Not quite," Ritchie cut off intensely. "Can you even _feel_ it anymore V? Feel the capacity of your power?"

Virgil somehow knew the answer to that before he even lifted his fingers for another go. Ritchie was right. He couldn't even feel the atmosphere around him. The electricity that was always there, anywhere on earth, just…wasn't.

"Oh, hell."

He was officially scared, beyond anything he had ever felt before, beyond words. He would have been lost then, if it wasn't for the tight grip on his wrist.

"I think—okay, good _God_—I think… let's see. We started out from Jacksonville, Florida…"

"Cause before that we stayed in Orlando and went to Disneyworld and Universal Studios!" Virgil chimed in.

"Yes, thank you for that, now shut up! Let's see if I can remember _anything_… Okay, so when we left we were around 30 degrees North and 81 degrees West. I memorized this so I could formulate the whole trip into Backpack, much less annoying than 'are we there yet?'"

"Rich!"

"Wha…? Oh, yeah, sorry. Right, so, we were only gone for about a day and a night before that blasted storm hit. It really shouldn't be possible but, well, what if…?"

"What if what?" Virgil was growing impatient, not because of the excessive babbling and the lack of focus, that he was used to, but because for once he really didn't know what would come out of it…

"Well, what if it managed to get us off course to about 27 degrees North and 70 degrees West?"

Ritchie was clearly giving him that look that said this should have a bigger impact than it did.

"I dunno, what?"

"V, that's the Bermuda Triangle you dolt! Most plotted courses go _around _it, what if that storm made us go through it? Virgil, what if we're _in_ it?"

"Then… that would be bad?"

"Bad! That's it! When we get home, I am _so_ making you start watching the Discovery Channel with me! This is a _catastrophe_! No wonder Backpack wasn't functioning properly…I wonder if our distress signal even got out! Oh shit and like I said, no one flies or sails around here! How are we gonna be spotted?" Ritchie put his head in his hands and moaned.

"Rich…"

"It's supposed to be like this _massive_ electromagnetic field and you can't even _sense that! _Ships and planes and _people_ get trapped here all the time! Oh fuck, _we're so screwed!_"

"Ritchie, shut up for a minute!"

Ritchie's mouth snapped closed.

Virgil had once again made out the important parts of that garble and ignored all the rest. The only thing he got from it this time was that they were in major trouble and most likely weren't to be rescued any time soon.

"What time is it?"

Ritchie shrugged, "How should I know… neither of us have waterproof watches, another purchase we'll have to consider if—_when_ we get back. How far is the sun across the sky?"

"Um, about half, I guess."

"Right, then mark the direction its setting in as West somehow. Tonight we'll search for the North Star."

"I dunno how."

Ritchie smiled slightly, and for the first time since they came to, Virgil felt relieved. "I still do." Squinting, he glanced up; even knowing the effort was futile. "Sun's been setting around 6:30 or so this time of year, we have around five hours left maybe."

"We should get some important stuff done." Virgil made to rise. "Or I should. You banged your head pretty hard. You just sit here for awhile Rich and I'll bring you stuff to try to make a fire out of. I've always wondered if rubbing two sticks together really works…"

Ritchie let out a snort and nodded. Virgil turned to make his way off down the beach, promising to check in every hour or so if he could keep time. Ritchie remarked in jest that maybe he could even figure out a sun dial. Virgil just laughed and started to whistle, or at least he tried too. Upon finding his lips too parched for that activity he switched to humming.

When he was about a quarter-way gone, he turned back to verify his friend's safety one last time. He observed with some worry that Ritchie looked really red from this vantage point.

His friend's voice called after him, tauntingly. "Um…Virgil? Just to be clear… was I imagining things before or did you really kiss me?"

Well, perhaps not all of that flush had to do with heat…

"It wasn't a kiss! It was resuscitation!"

"_And there's no cure like travel,  
To help you unravel,  
The worries of living today.  
When the poor brain is cracking,  
There's nothing like packing,  
A suitcase and sailing away.   
Take a run 'round Vienna,  
Granada, Ravenna, Sienna,  
And then a-'round Rome.  
Have a high time, a low time,  
And in no time,  
You'll be singing 'Home, Sweet Home…'"_

_Excerpt from "Anything Goes"_

A/N: Okay, I'm not going to be explaining anything here. Not my long absence or the random late update. Instead, I'm just going to be reminding everyone of the recent disaster of _Hurricane Katrina_ here in the US. I'm going to remind everyone to keep donating time, effort, money, food, water, clothing, shelter, blood, whatever you can spare. In times like this we realize just how fortunate we really are and to be thankful for what we have. I'm grateful for every last review I've gotten that has encouraged me thus far. I can only hope my continuing this story could be something someone else could be grateful for too.


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